SpaceX CRS-17: What's On Board?

Despite the Crew Dragon anomaly which figuratively rocked the Space Coast in late April, SpaceX and NASA are pushing ahead with the CRS-17 flight, citing confidence in the cargo Dragon (or Dragon 1) spacecraft. CRS-17 will re-use a previously flown cargo Dragon, which last visited the International Space Station during CRS-12 in 2017.

Almost everyone know if you put yeast with the correct ingredients you can make bread, or wine or beer. Have you ever thought about making vitamins, or even medicine? This is the focus of the BioNutrients experiment, carried to the International Space Station aboard Cygnus during the NG-11 mission.

Space Exploration Technologies Corporation hit a major milestone in their Commercial Crew partnership with NASA in the early morning hours of March 2, 2019. Thundering off the launchpad at LC-39A, Kennedy Space Center, a brand new Falcon 9 rocket lifted a brand new Dragon capsule designed to carry human beings to the International Space Station. Alternately called "Dragon 2" and "Crew Dragon" by SpaceX CEO and Lead Designer Elon Musk, this maiden (uncrewed) flight is a critical step in both SpaceX and NASA certifying the spacecraft for future human flights.

At 2:43:55 PM EST today, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will begin orbiting asteroid Bennu. This will make Bennu, which is only about 1,600 feet across, the smallest object ever orbited by a spacecraft. Launched on September 8, 2016, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft arrived in the vicinity of Bennu on December 3, 2018.